Drive laser for EUV light source

ABSTRACT

A device is described herein which may comprise an oscillator having an oscillator cavity length, L 0 , and defining an oscillator path; and a multi-pass optical amplifier coupled with the oscillator to establish a combined optical cavity including the oscillator path, the combined cavity having a length, L combined , where L combined =(N+x)*L 0 , where “N” is an integer and “x” is a number between 0.4 and 0.6.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser.No. 12/004,905, filed on Dec. 20, 2007, published on Jun. 25, 2009, asU.S. 2009/0161201A1, entitled “DRIVE LASER FOR EUV LIGHT SOURCE”,Attorney Docket No. 2006-0065-01; the contents of which are incorporatedherein by reference.

The present application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/827,803 filed on Jul. 13, 2007, published on Jan. 15, 2009, as U.S.2009/0014668A1, entitled LASER PRODUCED PLASMA EUV LIGHT SOURCE HAVING ADROPLET STREAM PRODUCED USING A MODULATED DISTURBANCE WAVE, AttorneyDocket Number 2007-0030-01; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/358,988filed on Feb. 21, 2006, published on Nov. 16, 2006, as U.S.2006/0255298A1, entitled LASER PRODUCED PLASMA EUV LIGHT SOURCE WITHPRE-PULSE, Attorney Docket Number 2005-0085-01, published on Nov. 16,2006, as U.S. 2006/0255298A1; U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/067,124 filed on Feb. 25, 2005, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,405,416, issuedon Jul. 29, 2008, entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR EUV PLASMA SOURCETARGET DELIVERY, Attorney Docket Number 2004-0008-01; U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/174,443 filed on Jun. 29, 2005, now U.S. Pat.No. 7,372,056, issued on May 13, 2008, entitled LPP EUV PLASMA SOURCEMATERIAL TARGET DELIVERY SYSTEM, Attorney Docket Number 2005-0003-01;U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/358,983, filed on Feb. 21, 2006, nowU.S. Pat. No. 7,378,673, issued on May 27, 2008, entitled SOURCEMATERIAL DISPENSER FOR EUV LIGHT SOURCE, Attorney Docket Number2005-0102-01; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/358,992 filed on Feb.21, 2006, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,598,509, issued on Oct. 6, 2009, entitledLASER PRODUCED PLASMA EUV LIGHT SOURCE, Attorney Docket Number2005-0081-01; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/174,299 filed on Jun.29, 2005, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,439,530, issued on Oct. 21, 2008,entitled, LPP EUV LIGHT SOURCE DRIVE LASER SYSTEM, Attorney DocketNumber 2005-0044-01; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/406,216 filedon Apr. 17, 2006, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,465,946, issued on Dec. 16, 2008,entitled ALTERNATIVE FUELS FOR EUV LIGHT SOURCE, Attorney Docket Number2006-0003-01; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/580,414 filed on Oct.13, 2006, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,491,954, issued on Feb. 17, 2009,entitled, DRIVE LASER DELIVERY SYSTEMS FOR EUV LIGHT SOURCE, AttorneyDocket Number 2006-0025-01; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/644,153filed on Dec. 22, 2006, published on Jun. 26, 2008, as U.S.2008/0149862A1, entitled, LASER PRODUCED PLASMA EUV LIGHT SOURCE,Attorney Docket Number 2006-0006-01; U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/505,177 filed on Aug. 16, 2006, published on Feb. 21, 2008, as U.S.2008/0043321A1, entitled EUV OPTICS, Attorney Docket Number2006-0027-01; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/452,558 filed on Jun.14, 2006, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,518,787, issued on Apr. 14, 2009, entitledDRIVE LASER FOR EUV LIGHT SOURCE, Attorney Docket Number 2006-0001-01;U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/712,545, filed on Nov. 13, 2003, nowU.S. Pat. No. 6,928,093, issued to Webb, et al., on Aug. 9, 2005,entitled LONG DELAY AND HIGH TIS PULSE STRETCHER; Attorney Docket No.2003-0109-01; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/394,512, filed on Mar.31, 2006, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,415,056, issued on Aug. 19, 2008, entitledCONFOCAL PULSE STRETCHER, Attorney Docket Number 2004-0144-01; U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/138,001, filed on May 26, 2005, publishedon Nov. 24, 2005, as U.S. 2005/0259709A1, entitled SYSTEMS AND METHODSFOR IMPLEMENTING AN INTERACTION BETWEEN A LASER SHAPED AS A LINE BEAMAND A FILM DEPOSITED ON A SUBSTRATE, Attorney Docket Number2004-0128-01, published on Nov. 24, 2005, as US 2005/0259709A1; U.S.patent application Ser. No. 10/141,216, filed on May 7, 2002, now U.S.Pat. No. 6,693,939, issued on Feb. 17, 2004, entitled LASER LITHOGRAPHYLIGHT SOURCE WITH BEAM DELIVERY, Attorney Docket Number 2002-0039-01;U.S. Pat. No. 6,625,191 issued to Knowles, et al., on Sep. 23, 2003,entitled VERY NARROW BAND, TWO CHAMBER, HIGH REP RATE GAS DISCHARGELASER SYSTEM, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/012,002, filed on Nov.30, 2001, Attorney Docket Number 2001-0090-01; U.S. Pat. No. 6,549,551issued to Ness, et al., on Apr. 15, 2003, entitled INJECTION SEEDEDLASER WITH PRECISE TIMING CONTROL, U.S. patent application Ser. No.09/848,043, filed on May 3, 2001, Attorney Docket Number 2001-0020-01;U.S. Pat. No. 6,567,450 issued to Myers, et al., on May 20, 2003,entitled VERY NARROW BAND, TWO CHAMBER, HIGH REP RATE GAS DISCHARGELASER SYSTEM, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/943,343, filed on Aug.29, 2001, Attorney Docket Number 2001-0084-01; and U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/509,925 filed on Aug. 25, 2006, now U.S. Pat.No. 7,476,886, issued on Jan. 13, 2009, entitled SOURCE MATERIALCOLLECTION UNIT FOR A LASER PRODUCED PLASMA EUV LIGHT SOURCE, AttorneyDocket Number 2005-0086-01; the entire contents of each of which arehereby incorporated by reference herein.

FIELD

The present application relates to extreme ultraviolet (“EUV”) lightsources providing EUV light from a plasma created from a source materialand collected and directed to a focus for utilization outside of the EUVlight source chamber, e.g., for semiconductor integrated circuitmanufacturing photolithography e.g., at wavelengths of around 100 nm andbelow.

BACKGROUND

Extreme ultraviolet (“EUV”) light, e.g., electromagnetic radiationhaving wavelengths of around 5-100 nm or less (also sometimes referredto as soft x-rays), and including light at a wavelength of about 13 nm,can be used in photolithography processes to produce extremely smallfeatures in substrates, e.g., silicon wafers.

Methods to produce EUV light include, but are not necessarily limitedto, converting a material into a plasma state that has an element, e.g.,xenon, lithium or tin, with an emission line in the EUV range. In onesuch method, often termed laser produced plasma (“LPP”) the requiredplasma can be produced by irradiating a target material, for example inthe form of a droplet, stream or cluster of material, with a laser beam.

For this process, the plasma is typically produced in a sealed vessel,e.g., vacuum chamber, and monitored using various types of metrologyequipment. In addition to generating EUV radiation, these plasmaprocesses also typically generate undesirable by-products in the plasmachamber which can include out-of-band radiation, high energy ions anddebris, e.g., atoms and/or clumps/microdroplets of the target material.

These plasma formation by-products can potentially heat, damage orreduce the operational efficiency of the various plasma chamber opticalelements including, but not limited to, collector mirrors includingmulti-layer mirrors (MLM's) capable of EUV reflection at normalincidence and/or grazing incidence, the surfaces of metrology detectors,windows used to image the plasma formation process, and the laser inputwindow. The heat, high energy ions and/or debris may be damaging to theoptical elements in a number of ways, including coating them withmaterials which reduce light transmission, penetrating into them and,e.g., damaging structural integrity and/or optical properties, e.g., theability of a mirror to reflect light at such short wavelengths,corroding or eroding them and/or diffusing into them. Thus, it istypically desirable to minimize the amount of and/or the effect ofplasma generated debris.

Heretofore, LPP systems have been disclosed in which each droplet isirradiated by a separate laser pulse to form a plasma from each droplet.Also, systems have been disclosed in which each droplet is sequentiallyilluminated by more than one light pulses. In some cases, each dropletmay be exposed to a so-called “pre-pulse” and a so-called “main pulse”,however, it is to be appreciated that more than one pre-pulse may beused and more than one main pulse may be used and that the functions ofthe pre-pulse and main pulse may overlap to some extent. Typically, thepre-pulse(s) may function to expand the material and thereby increasethe amount of material which interacts with the main pulse and themain-pulse may function to convert most or all of the material into aplasma and thereby produce an EUV light emission. However, it is to beappreciated that the functions of the pre-pulse and main pulse mayoverlap to some extent, e.g., the pre-pulse(s) may generate some plasma,etc. The increased material/pulse interaction may be due a largercross-section of material exposed to the pulse, a greater penetration ofthe pulse into the material due to the material's decreased density, orboth. Another benefit of pre-pulsing is that it may expand the target tothe size of the focused pulse, allowing all of the pulse to participate.This may be especially beneficial if relatively small droplets are usedas targets and the irradiating light cannot be focused to the size ofthe small droplet. Thus, in some applications, it may be desirable touse pre-pulsing to increase conversion efficiency and/or allow use ofrelatively small, e.g. so-called, mass limited targets. The use ofrelatively small targets, in turn, may be used to lower debrisgeneration and/or reduce source material consumption.

As indicated above, one technique to produce EUV light involvesirradiating a target material. In this regard, CO₂ lasers, e.g.,outputting light at infra-red wavelengths, e.g. 9.3 μm or 10.6 μm, maypresent certain advantages as a drive laser irradiating a targetmaterial in an LPP process. This may be especially true for certaintarget materials, e.g., materials containing tin. For example, oneadvantage may include the ability to produce a relatively highconversion efficiency between the drive laser input power and the outputEUV power. Another advantage of CO₂ drive lasers may include the abilityof the relatively long wavelength light (for example, as compared todeep UV at 193 nm) to reflect from relatively rough surfaces such as areflective optic that has been coated with tin debris. This property of10.6 μm radiation may allow reflective mirrors to be employed near theplasma for, e.g., steering, focusing and/or adjusting the focal power ofthe drive laser beam.

Another factor worthy of consideration is the difficulty associated withconsistently and accurately hitting a series of relatively small,quickly moving droplets with a pulsed laser beam at relatively highrepetition rates. For example, some high-volume EUV light sources maycall for the irradiation of droplets having a diameter of about 20-50 μmand moving at a velocity of about 50-100 m/s, at repetition ratesexceeding 30 kHz.

In addition to the above described techniques, U.S. Pat. No. 6,855,943(hereinafter the '943 patent) which issued to Shields on Feb. 15, 2005and is entitled “DROPLET TARGET DELIVERY METHOD FOR HIGH PULSE-RATELASER-PLASMA EXTREME ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT SOURCE” discloses a technique inwhich only some of the droplets in a droplet stream, e.g., every thirddroplet, is irradiated to produce a pulsed EUV light output. Asdisclosed in the '943 patent, the nonparticipating droplets (so-calledbuffer droplets) advantageously shield the next participating dropletfrom the effects of the plasma generated at the irradiation site.Unfortunately, in some cases, these buffer droplets may reflect lightback into the laser causing self-lasing, which among other things, canreduce the effectiveness of the laser's gain media in producing highenergy pulses. This may be especially true for high gain (e.g.,G=1000-10,000) infra-red lasers, e.g., CO₂ lasers, which tend toself-lase rather easily. Thus, it may be desirable to minimize anylosses between pulses, including minimizing the effect of reflections.It may also be desirable to maximize gain extraction from a drive laseramplifier during pulse generation to produce large energy pulses, and insome cases, to provide stable consisting pulses, e.g. by minimizinginstabilities, such as those caused by mode hopping in certain CO₂lasers having a MO-PA configuration.

With the above in mind, Applicants disclose a drive laser for an EUVlight source.

SUMMARY

In a first aspect, a device is described herein which may comprise anoscillator having an oscillator cavity length, L₀, and defining anoscillator path; and a multi-pass optical amplifier coupled with theoscillator to establish a combined optical cavity including theoscillator path, the combined cavity having a length, L_(combined),where L_(combined)=(N*x)*L₀, where “N” is an integer and “x” is a numberbetween 0.4 and 0.6.

In one embodiment described herein, the oscillator cavity may comprisean optic defining an end of the oscillator cavity and the device maycomprise an electro-actuable element coupled to the optic andcontrollable to adjust the oscillator cavity length.

In a particular embodiment described herein, the amplifier may comprisea polarization discriminating optic, the optic inputting light travelingalong a first beam path from the oscillator and having substantially afirst linear polarization into the amplifier, and, the optic outputtinglight having substantially a linear polarization orthogonal to the firstpolarization out of the amplifier along a second beam path.

In one arrangement of this aspect, the oscillator may comprise anoscillator output optic, the amplifier may comprise an amplifier inputoptic, and the device may further comprise at least one moveable opticto adjust a beam path length between the oscillator output optic and theamplifier input optic.

In one setup, the oscillator may be configured as a cavity dumpedoscillator and in another setup, the oscillator may be configured as a Qswitched oscillator.

In another aspect, a device is described herein which may comprise alaser source producing a continuous output on a beam path; an amplifier;a partially transmissive, partially reflective optic disposed on thebeam path between the laser source and the amplifier; and a dropletgenerator positioned to deliver a droplet moving on a path intersectingthe beam path, the droplet reflecting light to establish an opticalcavity with the optic.

For this aspect, the laser source may have a power output, the partiallytransmissive, partially reflective optic may have a reflectivity, and inone setup, the power output and reflectivity may be selected wherein thelight entering the amplifier from the oscillator does not exceed about 2kW. In one embodiment of this aspect described herein, the laser sourcemay comprise a CO₂ laser having an output in the range of 0.1 W to 100W. In one implementation, the partially transmissive, partiallyreflective optic may reflect between 75% and 99.9% of the laser sourceoutput.

In one embodiment of this aspect, an adjustable telescope may bedisposed along the beam path between the oscillator and the amplifier.

In a particular embodiment of this aspect, an optical isolator may bedisposed between the laser source and the partially transmissive,partially reflective optic to protect the oscillator from reflectedlight.

In a particular arrangement, the laser source may produce a continuousoutput having at least two lines and the amplifier may have a gain bandincluding the two lines.

In another aspect, a device is described herein which may comprise atarget material; at least one optic establishing a beam path with thetarget material; an optical gain medium positioned along the beam path;a chamber; a plurality of optics disposed in the chamber to establish adelay line along the beam path; and a saturable absorption gas disposedin the chamber to absorb at least some photons reflected from the targetmaterial.

In a particular embodiment, the optical gain medium may comprise CO₂having a gain band including 10.6 μm and the saturable absorption gasmay comprise SF₆. In another embodiment, the optical gain medium maycomprises CO₂ having a gain band including 9.3 μm and the saturableabsorption gas may be selected from the group of gases consisting ofCH₃OH, CH₃F, HCOOH, CD₃OD, CD₃F, DCOOD, and combinations thereof (wherethe chemical symbol “D” is used to represent deuterium). For someapplications, helium gas may also be disposed in the chamber.

In another aspect, a device is described herein which may comprise afirst laser source producing a first output beam having a wavelength,λ₁, a second laser source producing a second output beam having awavelength, λ₂, with, λ₁≠λ₂, and an amplifier having a gain bandincluding λ₁ and λ₂. The device may further comprise an optical isolatorhaving a polarization discriminating optic substantially transmittinglight having a first linear polarization and substantially blockingtransmission of light having a linear polarization orthogonal to thefirst polarization; and a coupling optic having atransmission-reflection ratio, TRR₁, for light having a wavelength, λ₁,and a transmission-reflection ratio, TRR₂, for light having awavelength, λ₂, with TRR₁>TRR₂, the optic coupling the first output beamand second output beam onto a common beam path through the amplifier.

In one embodiment of this aspect, the first laser source may have a gainmedium comprising CO₂ producing a first output beam having a wavelength,λ₁ of 10.6 μm and the second laser source may have a gain mediumcomprising CO₂ producing a second output beam having a wavelength, λ₂,of 9.3 μm.

In one setup, the optical isolator may comprise a forty-five degreephase retarding optic and a linear polarization filter.

In a particular arrangement, the amplifier may comprise a plurality ofamplifier chambers positioned along a common beam path and the couplingoptic may be positioned between two amplifier chambers on the commonbeam path.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a simplified schematic view of a laser-produced plasma EUVlight source according to an aspect of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 shows a section view of an isolator for use in the light sourceshown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 shows selected portions of another embodiment of alaser-produced-plasma EUV light source;

FIG. 4 shows an embodiment of a device for use in the EUV light sourcein which pre-pulses and main pulses are passed through a commonamplifier;

FIG. 5 shows an embodiment of an EUV light source in which a partiallyreflective—partially transmissive optic is disposed between q lasersource producing a continuous output and an amplifier chain;

FIG. 6 shows an embodiment of device for use in the EUV light sourceshown in FIG. 3 having a multi-pass power amplifier;

FIG. 7 shows the frequency v. amplitude relationship for oscillator gainbandwidth (top), PA modes (middle) and oscillator modes (bottom);

FIG. 8 illustrates a temporal sequence for the switches 610, 628 of theembodiment shown in FIG. 3; and

FIG. 9 shows another embodiment of a device for use in the EUV lightsource 10′ shown in FIG. 3 in which the length of the optical pathlength between oscillator and amplifier is adjustable.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

With initial reference to FIG. 1 there is shown a schematic view of anEUV light source, e.g., a laser-produced-plasma, EUV light source 10according to one aspect of an embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, anddescribed in further details below, the LPP light source 10 may includea system 12 for generating and delivering a train of light pulses. Asshown, the system 12 may include a device 14 generating pulses (which insome cases may include one or more main pulses and one or morepre-pulses), an isolator 16 (described in more detail below withreference to FIG. 2) for isolating the device 14 from at least somedownstream reflections, and an optional beam delivery system 18 (shownwith dashed lines to indicate an optional component) for pulse shaping,focusing, steering and/or adjusting the focal power of the pulsesexiting the isolator 16, and delivering the light pulses to a targetlocation in chamber 26. For the EUV light source 10, each light pulsemay travel along a beam path from the system 12 and into the chamber 26to illuminate a respective target droplet at an irradiation region, e.g.at or near a focus 28 of an ellipsoidal mirror 30.

Device 14 may include one or more lasers and/or lamps for providing oneor more main pulses and, in some cases, one or more pre-pulses. Suitablelasers for use in the device 14 shown in FIG. 1 may include a pulsedlaser device, e.g., a pulsed, gas-discharge CO₂ laser device producingradiation at 9.3 μm or 10.6 μm, e.g., with DC or RF excitation,operating at relatively high power, e.g., 10 kW or higher and high pulserepetition rate, e.g., 50 kHz or more. In one particular implementation,the laser may be an RF-pumped CO₂ laser having a MOPA configuration withmultiple stages of amplification and having a seed pulse that isinitiated by a Q-switched Master Oscillator (MO) with low energy andhigh repetition rate, e.g., capable of 100 kHz operation. From the MO,the laser pulse may then be amplified, shaped, steered and/or focusedbefore entering the LPP chamber. Continuously RF pumped, fast axialflow, CO₂ amplifiers may be used for the system 12. For example, asuitable CO₂ laser device having an oscillator and three amplifiers(O-PA1-PA2-PA3 configuration) is disclosed in U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/174,299 filed on Jun. 29, 2005, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,439,530,issued on Oct. 21, 2008, entitled, LPP EUV LIGHT SOURCE DRIVE LASERSYSTEM, Attorney Docket Number 2005-0044-01, the entire contents ofwhich have been previously incorporated by reference herein.Alternatively, the laser may be configured as a so-called“self-targeting” laser system in which the droplet serves as one mirrorof the optical cavity. In some “self-targeting” arrangements, a masteroscillator may not be required. Self targeting laser systems aredisclosed and claimed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/580,414filed on Oct. 13, 2006, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,491,954, issued on Feb. 17,2009, entitled, DRIVE LASER DELIVERY SYSTEMS FOR EUV LIGHT SOURCE,Attorney Docket Number 2006-0025-01, the entire contents of which havebeen previously incorporated by reference herein. Alternatively, one ofthe laser architectures described below and shown in FIG. 4, 5, 6 or 9may be used for the EUV light source 10 shown in FIG. 1.

Depending on the application, other types of lasers may also besuitable, e.g., an excimer or molecular fluorine laser operating at highpower and high pulse repetition rate. Examples include, a solid statelaser, e.g., having a fiber or disk shaped active media, a MOPAconfigured excimer laser system, e.g., as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos.6,625,191, 6,549,551, and 6,567,450, an excimer laser having one or morechambers, e.g., an oscillator chamber and one or more amplifyingchambers (with the amplifying chambers in parallel or in series), amaster oscillator/power oscillator (MOPO) arrangement, a poweroscillator/power amplifier (POPA) arrangement, or a solid state laserthat seeds one or more excimer or molecular fluorine amplifier oroscillator chambers, may be suitable. Other designs are possible.

A suitable beam delivery system 18 for pulse shaping, focusing, steeringand/or adjusting the focal power of the pulses is disclosed in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/358,992 filed on Feb. 21, 2006, now U.S.Pat. No. 7,598,509, issued on Oct. 6, 2009, entitled LASER PRODUCEDPLASMA EUV LIGHT SOURCE, Attorney Docket Number 2005-0081-01, thecontents of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein. Asdisclosed therein, one or more beam delivery system optics may be influid communication with the chamber 26. Pulse shaping may includeadjusting pulse duration, using, for example a pulse stretcher and/orpulse trimming.

As further shown in FIG. 1, the EUV light source 10 may also include atarget material delivery system 24, e.g., delivering droplets of atarget material into the interior of a chamber 26 to the irradiationregion where the droplets will interact with one or more light pulses,e.g., zero, one or more pre-pulses and thereafter one or more mainpulses, to ultimately produce a plasma and generate an EUV emission. Thetarget material may include, but is not necessarily limited to, amaterial that includes tin, lithium, xenon or combinations thereof. TheEUV emitting element, e.g., tin, lithium, xenon, etc., may be in theform of liquid droplets and/or solid particles contained within liquiddroplets. For example, the element tin may be used as pure tin, as a tincompound, e.g., SnBr₄, SnBr₂, SnH₄, as a tin alloy, e.g., tin-galliumalloys, tin-indium alloys, tin-indium-gallium alloys, or a combinationthereof. Depending on the material used, the target material may bepresented to the irradiation region at various temperatures includingroom temperature or near room temperature (e.g., tin alloys, SnBr₄) atan elevated temperature, (e.g., pure tin) or at temperatures below roomtemperature, (e.g., SnH₄), and in some cases, can be relativelyvolatile, e.g., SnBr₄. More details concerning the use of thesematerials in an LPP EUV source is provided in U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/406,216 filed on Apr. 17, 2006, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,465,946,issued on Dec. 16, 2008, entitled ALTERNATIVE FUELS FOR EUV LIGHTSOURCE, Attorney Docket Number 2006-0003-01, the contents of which havebeen previously incorporated by reference herein.

Continuing with FIG. 1, the EUV light source 10 may also include anoptic 30, e.g., a collector mirror in the form of a truncated ellipsoidhaving, e.g., a graded multi-layer coating with alternating layers ofMolybdenum and Silicon. FIG. 1 shows that the optic 30 may be formedwith an aperture to allow the light pulses generated by the system 12 topass through and reach the irradiation region. As shown, the optic 30may be, e.g., an ellipsoidal mirror that has a first focus within ornear the irradiation region and a second focus at a so-calledintermediate region 40 where the EUV light may be output from the EUVlight source 10 and input to a device utilizing EUV light, e.g., anintegrated circuit lithography tool (not shown). It is to be appreciatedthat other optics may be used in place of the ellipsoidal mirror forcollecting and directing light to an intermediate location forsubsequent delivery to a device utilizing EUV light, for example theoptic may be parabolic or may be configured to deliver a beam having aring-shaped cross-section to an intermediate location, see e.g., U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/505,177 filed on Aug. 16, 2006, andpublished on Feb. 21, 2008, as US 2008/0043321A1, entitled EUV OPTICS,Attorney Docket Number 2006-0027-01, the contents of which are herebyincorporated by reference.

Continuing with reference to FIG. 1, the EUV light source 10 may alsoinclude an EUV controller 60, which may also include a firing controlsystem 65 for triggering one or more lamps and/or laser devices in thesystem 12 to thereby generate light pulses for delivery into the chamber26. The EUV light source 10 may also include a droplet positiondetection system which may include one or more droplet imagers 70 thatprovide an output indicative of the position of one or more droplets,e.g., relative to the irradiation region. The imager(s) 70 may providethis output to a droplet position detection feedback system 62, whichcan, e.g., compute a droplet position and trajectory, from which adroplet error can be computed, e.g., on a droplet by droplet basis or onaverage. The droplet error may then be provided as an input to thecontroller 60, which can, for example, provide a position, directionand/or timing correction signal to the system 12 to control a sourcetiming circuit and/or to control a beam position and shaping system,e.g., to change the location and/or focal power of the light pulsesbeing delivered to the irradiation region in the chamber 26.

The EUV light source 10 may include one or more EUV metrologyinstruments for measuring various properties of the EUV light generatedby the source 10. These properties may include, for example, intensity(e.g., total intensity or intensity within a particular spectral band),spectral bandwidth, polarization, beam position, pointing, etc. For theEUV light source 10, the instrument(s) may be configured to operatewhile the downstream tool, e.g., photolithography scanner, is on-line,e.g., by sampling a portion of the EUV output, e.g., using a pickoffmirror or sampling “uncollected” EUV light, and/or may operate while thedownstream tool, e.g., photolithography scanner, is off-line, forexample, by measuring the entire EUV output of the EUV light source 10.

As further shown in FIG. 1, the EUV light source 10 may include adroplet control system 90, operable in response to a signal (which insome implementations may include the droplet error described above, orsome quantity derived therefrom) from the controller 60, to e.g., modifythe release point of the target material from a droplet source 92 and/ormodify droplet formation timing, to correct for errors in the dropletsarriving at the desired irradiation region and/or synchronize thegeneration of droplets with the pulsed laser system 12.

More details regarding various droplet dispenser configurations andtheir relative advantages may be found in U.S. patent application Ser.No. 11/827,803 filed on Jul. 13, 2007, and published on Jan. 15, 2009,as US 2009/0014668A1, entitled LASER PRODUCED PLASMA EUV LIGHT SOURCEHAVING A DROPLET STREAM PRODUCED USING A MODULATED DISTURBANCE WAVE,Attorney Docket Number 2007-0030-01, U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/358,988 filed on Feb. 21, 2006, and published on Nov. 16, 2006, as US2006/0255298A1, entitled LASER PRODUCED PLASMA EUV LIGHT SOURCE WITHPRE-PULSE, Attorney Docket Number 2005-0085-01, U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/067,124 filed on Feb. 25, 2005, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,405,416,issued on Jun. 29, 2008, entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR EUV PLASMASOURCE TARGET DELIVERY, Attorney Docket Number 2004-0008-01; and U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/174,443 filed on Jun. 29, 2005, now U.S.Pat. No. 7,372,056, issued on May 13, 2008, entitled LPP EUV PLASMASOURCE MATERIAL TARGET DELIVERY SYSTEM, Attorney Docket Number2005-0003-01, the contents of each of which are hereby incorporated byreference.

FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of an isolator 16 for protecting the gainmedia in the device 14 (shown in FIG. 1) from at least some reflectedphotons and/or for delaying reflected photons to prevent these photonsfrom reaching the gain media at a time when the photons may deplete alarge gain built up in the media. As shown in FIG. 2, the isolator 14may include a chamber 200 having a first window 202 and second window204, sealing the chamber 200, both of which may be oriented atBrewster's angle and/or coated with an anti-reflective coating. Asfurther shown, optics 206 a,b,c, which for the embodiment shown aremirrors, may be disposed in the chamber 200 to establish a seven pass,delaying beam path 208. Although three optics 206 a,b,c are shown, it isto be appreciated that more than three and as few as two optics may beused to establish the delay path. Similarly, although a seven pass pathis shown, it is to be appreciated that this is merely by way ofillustration and that other delay path architectures may be employedwithin the scope of the present disclosure. It is also to be appreciatedthat optics other than mirrors may be used, to include components whichreflect and/or transmit and/or operate on incident light and includes,but is not limited to, lenses, wedges, prisms, grisms, gradings, andmirrors including multi-layer mirrors, near-normal incidence mirrors,grazing incidence mirrors.

Continuing with FIG. 2, it can be seen that the chamber may be formedwith at least one inlet 210 to allow gas to be disposed in the chamber.For example, the gas may include a saturable absorption gas whichfunctions to absorb photons below a characteristic intensity level whileallowing photons to pass above the characteristic intensity level. Forexample, for a device 14 (shown in FIG. 1) having a CO₂ optical gainmedium having a gain band including 10.6 μm, the saturable absorptiongas may comprise SF₆. On the other hand, for a device 14 having a CO₂optical gain medium having a gain band including 9.3, the saturableabsorption gas may be selected from the group of gases consisting ofCH₃OH, CH₃F, HCOOH, CD₃OD, CD₃F, DCOOD, and combinations thereof (wherethe chemical symbol “D” is used to represent deuterium). For eitherapplication (i.e. 9.3 or 10.6 μm), helium gas may also be disposed inthe chamber 200, e.g. at a ratio of about 1 part helium to 5 partssaturable absorption gas to improve absorption by re-population of theabsorping state via collisions with helium atoms.

An optional gas outlet (not shown) may be provided to exhaust gas fromthe chamber 200 and to cooperate with the inlet 210 to; refresh theactive gas, adjust gas composition, provide a flow of gas through thechamber to maintain optic temperature, and/or remove spentgas/contaminants.

For the arrangement shown in FIG. 2, the efficiency of the saturableabsorption gas is generally proportional to the gas concentration andthe length of the optical path through the gas. With this cooperation ofstructure, a relatively compact isolator may be provided which functionsto delay reflect photons such that they do not reach an active gainmedia at a undesirable time (e.g. when they may extract gain betweenpulses) and/or the isolator may function to absorb photons below athreshold intensity level at relatively low gas concentrations (comparedto the concentration required if the path was not relatively long).

FIG. 3 shows selected portions of another embodiment of an EUV lightsource 10′ e.g., a laser-produced-plasma EUV light source according toone aspect of an embodiment. As shown in FIG. 3, and described infurther details below, the LPP light source 10′ may include a system forgenerating and delivering a train of light pulses to a location 28′ in achamber 26′ for interaction with a target material to generate an EUVoutput. Also shown, the system may include a device 14′ generatingpulses (which in some cases may include one or more main pulses and oneor more pre-pulses), an optional isolator 16′ as described above withreference to FIG. 2 (shown with dashed lines to indicate an optionalcomponent) and an optional beam delivery system 18′ (shown with dashedlines to indicate an optional component) for pulse shaping, focusing,steering and/or adjusting the focal power of the pulses exiting theisolator 16, and delivering the light pulses to a target location inchamber 26.

FIG. 4 shows an embodiment of a device 14′ for use in the EUV lightsource 10′ shown in FIG. 3. FIG. 4 shows the device 14′ may include anoscillator 400 seeding an amplifier having a chain of amplifier chambers406 a-c, arranged in series along a beam path 408, each chamber havingits own active media and excitation source, e.g. pumping electrodes. Forthe is device 14′, the oscillator 400/amplifier 406 a-c combination maybe used to produce a train of “main” pulses at a wavelength, λ₁, such as10.6 μm. For example, the oscillator 400 may be a cavity-dumped or aQ-switched, pulsed, CO₂, Master Oscillator (MO) with relatively lowenergy and high repetition rate, e.g., capable of 100 kHz operation. Forthe device 14′, the multi-chamber optical amplifier 406 a,b,c may have again media capable of optically amplifying wavelengths within the range9.3-10.6 μm, e.g., a high gain (G≧1,000 and in some cases 10,000) CWpumped, CO₂ laser amplifier. Although three amplifier chambers 406 a-care shown, it is to be appreciated that more than three and as few asone amplifier chambers may be used in the embodiment shown in FIG. 4.

Continuing with FIG. 4, polarizer(s) and/or Brewster's windows may beemployed in the oscillator 400 and/or amplifier 406 a-b such that lightexiting the amplifier chamber 406 c has a primary polarizationdirection. FIG. 4 also shows that the EUV light source may include anoptical isolator 412 which may be positioned along a beam path 408extending through the amplifier chamber 406 a,b,c and interposed betweenthe amplifier chamber 406 c and an irradiation site where a droplet (notshown in FIG. 4) will intersect with the beam path 408. The isolator 412may include, for example, a phase retarder mirror which, when reflectinglight, converts linear polarized light to circularly polarized light,and converts circularly polarized light to linear polarized light. Thus,light initially having a primary polarization direction that issubsequently reflected twice from the phase retarder mirror is rotatedninety degrees from the primary polarization direction, i.e. the twicereflected light becomes linearly polarized in a direction orthogonal tothe primary polarization direction. In addition to the phase retardermirror, the isolator 412 may also include an linear polarization filter,e.g. isolator mirror which absorbs light that is linearly polarized in adirection orthogonal to the primary polarization direction. With thisarrangement, light reflected on the beam path 408 from the targetmaterial, e.g. droplet, is absorbed by the optical isolator 412 andcannot re-enter the amplifier 406 a,b,c. For example, a suitable unitfor use with CO₂ lasers may be obtained from Kugler GmbH, HeiligenbergerStr. 100, 88682, Salem, Germany under the trade name Queller and/or“isolator box”. Typically, the optical isolator 412 functions to allowlight to flow from the amplifier device 14′ to the droplet virtuallyunimpeded while allowing only about one percent of back-reflected lightto leak through the optical isolator 412 and reach the amplifier 406a,b,c.

FIG. 4 further shows that the device 14′ may include a pre-pulse seedlaser 414 which seeds at least one of the amplifier chambers 406 a,b,c.For the device 14′, the seed laser 414/amplifier chamber 406 ccombination may be used to produce a train of pre-pulses at awavelength, λ₂, such as 9.3 μm. For example, the pre-pulse seed laser414 may be a cavity-dumped or a Q-switched, CO₂, Master Oscillator (MO)with relatively low energy and high repetition rate, e.g., capable of100 kHz operation.

As further shown in FIG. 4, coupling optic 416 is provided to co-axiallycouple light from amplifier chamber 406 b with light from pre-pulse seedlaser 414 onto a common beam path to travel through amplifier chamber406 c. For example, a coupling optic 416 having a relatively hightransmission-reflection ratio, TRR₁, for light having a wavelength, 9.3μm, and a relatively low transmission-reflection ratio, TRR₂, for lighthaving a wavelength, 10.6 μm, may be used. For example, the beams may becombined on thin film polarizer element optimized for reflection of 10.6um and AR coated for 9.3 um on one side, with both beams havingS-polarization. For example, II-VI Corporation (headquartered inSaxonburg, Pa.) fabricates such an element for 45 degree angle ofincidence (AOI) with 99.5% reflection for 10.6 um and 92% transmissionfor 9.3 um. Although the coupling optic 416 is shown positioned alongbeam path 408 between amplifier chamber 406 b and amplifier chamber 406c, it is to be appreciated that it may be positioned at other locationsalong beam path 408 such as between amplifier chamber 406 a andamplifier chamber 406 b, between oscillator 400 and amplifier chamber406 a, between amplifier chamber 406 c and optical isolator 412, etc.

In another implementation, the seed laser 414 may be used to produce atrain of pre-pulses at a wavelength of 10.6 μm and the oscillator 400may be used to produce a train of “main” pulses at a wavelength of 9.3μm. For this implementation, the coupling optic 416 may be a beamcoupler designed as transmissive for 10.6 um and reflective for 9.3 um.For example, II-VI Corporation (headquartered in Saxonburg, Pa.) sellsan optic characterized as having 94% transmission for 10.6 um and 94%reflection for 9.3 um.

For the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, the initial irradiation of thetarget material by the seed laser 414 may be sufficient to expand thetarget material and/or vaporize the target material and/or create apartial plasma of the target material, e.g., a pre-pulse. Depending onthe specific application, utilization of a pre-pulse (on the order offew milli-Joules) followed by one or more main pulses may result inimproved conversion efficiency and/or a reduction in the amount ofdebris generated and/or for puffing up the droplet target, relaxingrequirements for main beam pulse and droplet position stability and/ormay allow the use of small diameter droplets. Typically, sharing outputamplifier(s) of the main pulse (one or two) for amplification thepre-pulse beam may result in negligible inversion losses for the mainpulse (on the order of 1%).

FIG. 5 shows an embodiment of another device (labeled 14″). FIG. 5 showsthe device 14″ may include a laser source 500 producing a continuousoutput on a beam path 502 and an amplifier having a chain of amplifierchambers 506 a-c, arranged in series along the beam path 502, eachchamber having its own active media and excitation source, e.g. pumpingelectrodes. For example, the laser source 500 may include a CO₂ laserhaving an output in the range of 0.1 W to 100 W and may operate on oneor more rotational lines in the 9.3-10.6 micron wavelength band. Forexample, the laser source may run on a plurality of non-neighboringlines such as P(26), P(22), and P(18). For the device 14″, the amplifier506 may include two or more amplifier chambers, e.g. RF, continuouslypumped, fast axial flow, CO₂ amplifier chambers (as described above),having a gain media adapted to amplify the line(s) produced by the lasersource 500, and having a one pass gain of, for example 1000-10,000.

It can further be seen in FIG. 5 that a partially transmissive,partially reflective optic 508 may be disposed on the beam path 502between the laser source 500 and the amplifier 506. For example, theoptic 508 may reflect between about 75% and about 99.9% of the lasersource output. In one setup, the laser source 500 power and optic 508reflectivity are selected such that light entering the amplifier 506from the oscillator does not significantly deplete the gain in theamplifier 506, e.g. does not exceed about 1-2 kW.

FIG. 5 further shows that the device 14″ may include a droplet generator92 positioned to deliver a series of droplets moving on a path whichintersects the beam path 502. During this intersection, a droplet fromthe droplet generator may reflect light along the beam path 502,cooperating with the optic 508 to establish an optical cavity passingthrough the amplifier chamber 506 a-c. With this arrangement, the optic508, amplifier 506 and droplet combined to form a so-called“self-targeting” laser system in which the droplet serves as one mirror(a so-called plasma mirror or mechanical q-switch) of the opticalcavity. Self targeting laser systems are disclosed and claimed in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/580,414 filed on Oct. 13, 2006, now U.S.Pat. No. 7,491,954, issued on Feb. 17, 2009, entitled, DRIVE LASERDELIVERY SYSTEMS FOR EUV LIGHT SOURCE, Attorney Docket Number2006-0025-01, the entire contents of which have been previouslyincorporated by reference herein.

An optional beam expanding telescope 510 may be provided, the telescopeadapted to match the beam size and divergence to the io parametersrequired for the propagation through the amplifier 506 with minimallosses. Also, an optional opto-isolator 512 may be used to protect thelaser source 500 from the reflected light.

In use light from the laser source 500 enters the main cavity of theself-directed “plasma mirror” laser system through the reflective optic508 and fills the main cavity with photons corresponding to therotational line(s) generated by the laser source 500. When a dropletpasses through the focal area of focusing lens 514, it creates the backreflection and starts the high-intensity pulse of the self-directed,“plasma mirror” laser system. Since the cavity is already filled withthe photons of the correct wavelength, a multi-line pulse may begenerated that efficiently extracts gain.

FIG. 6 shows an embodiment of another device (labeled 14′″) for use inthe EUV light source 10′ shown in FIG. 3. FIG. 6 shows the device 14′″may include a laser oscillator 600 and a multi-pass amplifier 602. Forexample, the oscillator 600 may be an RF, continuously pumped CO₂ laserhaving an output in the 9.3-10.6 micron wavelength band, and theamplifier 602 may be an RF, continuously pumped, fast axial flow, CO₂laser having one or more amplifier chambers arranged in series andhaving a gain media adapted to amplify light having the wavelengthoutput by the oscillator 600.

As further shown, the oscillator 600 may include fully reflectivemirrors 604 a,b with mirror 604 a being operatively coupled to anelectro-actuatable element 606, e.g. piezoelectric material and anelectro-actuator, which can be used to move mirror 604 a along theoscillator path 608 and thereby selectively adjust the oscillator cavitylength, L₀, (shown as distance (a+b) in FIG. 6 between mirror 604 a andmirror 604 b).

As used herein, the term “electro-actuatable element” and itsderivatives, means a material or structure which undergoes a dimensionalchange when subjected to a voltage, electric field, magnetic field, orcombinations thereof and includes but is not limited to piezoelectricmaterials, electrostrictive materials and magnetostrictive materials.

Continuing with FIG. 6, polarizer(s) and/or Brewster's windows and/orprisms, etc may be employed in the oscillator 600 such that lightoscillating between the mirrors 604 a,b has a primary polarizationdirection. Device 14′″ may also include a cavity dumping switch having,for example, electro-optic switch 610, e.g. Pockel's or Kerr cell, and apolarizer 612, e.g. thin-film polarizer having a transmission axisaligned parallel to the primary polarization direction defined by theoscillator 600. As shown, the polarizer 612 may be distanced from themirror 604 a by a distance “a” and be distanced from the mirror 604 b bya distance “b”. Thus, when the switch is de-energized, light is able topass back and forth between the mirrors 604 a,b, and, when the switch isenergized, light in the oscillator cavity is rotated and is reflected bythe polarizer 612 onto path 614. For example, the light may be rotatedninety degrees by the electro-optic switch 610, and thus, light exitingthe oscillator 600 onto path 614 may be polarized in a directionorthogonal to the primary polarization direction defined by thetransmission of polarizer 612.

From the polarizer 612, reflected light travels through a distance, “c”to another polarizer 616, e.g. e.g. thin-film polarizer having atransmission axis aligned parallel to the primary polarization directiondefined by the oscillator 600. With this arrangement, light frompolarizer 612 being polarized in a direction orthogonal to the primarypolarization direction defined by the oscillator 600 is reflected by thepolarizer 616 onto path 618 which extends through the amplifierchamber(s) 602, as shown.

The arrangement shown in FIG. 6 may further include a phase retardingmirror (PRM) 620 position along path 618 and distanced from thepolarizer 616 by a distance “d”, the PRM 620 converting the linearpolarized light from polarizer 616 into circularly polarized light anddirecting the circularly polarized light to fully reflective mirror 622along path 624. As shown, fully reflective mirror 622 is positioned at adistance “e” from PRM 620 and oriented to reflecting light incidentalong path 624 back onto path 624 where the light will once again bereflected by PRM 620 resulting in a second phase retardation. With thesetwo phase retardations, light traveling from PRM 620 toward polarizer616 will be rotated ninety degrees (relative to light traveling frompolarizer 616 toward PRM 620) and thus will be polarized parallel to theprimary polarization direction defined by the oscillator 600. With thispolarization state, most of the light (except for a small amount ofleakage) traveling from PRM 620 toward polarizer 616 will be transmittedby polarizer 616 and exit the device 14′″ along path 626. An optionalswitch 628, which may be, for example, a mechanical chopper oracousto-optic modulator, may be positioned along path 614 to selectivelylimit transmission of light along path 614, as shown. Light along path626 can be further amplified by additional amplifier chambers (notshown).

As implied above, leakage of PRM 620 and the polarizers will allow asmall amount of light (polarized orthogonal to the primary polarizationdirection defined by the polarizer 612) to leak from amplifier 602 backinto the oscillator cavity along path 614. Thus, with the switch 610energized, this light will be able to oscillate back and forth betweenmirror 604 a and 622. As a result, the arrangement shown in FIG. 6 willestablish two optical cavities; a first optical cavity between mirror604 a and 604 b having length, L₀ equal to (a+b), and a second opticalcavity between mirror 604 a and mirror 622 having length,L_(combined)=(a+2b+c+d+e).

In the following discussion, an oscillator 600 will be referred to asMO, while an amplifier chamber will be referred to as PA.

In one operational mode, mirror 604 a may be moved via electro-actuableelement 606 such that L_(combined)=(N+x)*L₀, where “N” is an integer and“x” is about 0.5, e.g. a number between 0.4 and 0.6. For example, for atypical system, the lengths may be as follows: a=176 cm, b=10 cm, c=260cm, d=746 cm and e=7 cm. Therefore,L_(combined)=a+2b+c+d+e=176+2*10+260+746+7=1209 cm and L₀=a+b=186 cm.For this case, N=6 and x=0.5. FIG. 7 illustrates the gain bandwidth 700of the oscillator, the PA modes (of which modes 702 a,b,c have beenlabeled), and the oscillator modes (of which modes 704 a,b,c have beenlabeled). Note, arrow 706 in FIG. 7 illustrates that the frequency ofthe oscillator modes may be adjusted using the electro-actuable element606 shown in FIG. 6.

For the dimensions recited above, the gain bandwidth of the oscillatorssingle rotational line is about 150 MHz FWHM. For a typical oscillatorcavity length L_(O)=186 cm, this corresponds to 80 MHz longitudinal modeseparation. Thus, there could be a maximum of three MO modes that arewithin the gain band of oscillator 600. As seen in FIG. 7, only one ofthese three modes (mode 706) can be made at the same frequency as one ofthe PA modes (mode 702). The neighboring MO modes (i.e. modes 704 a and704 a′ in FIG. 7) will fall in between corresponding PA modes (702 a′and 702 a″ for MO mode 704 a and 702 b′ and 702 b″ for MO mode 704 a′)because of condition L_(combined)=(N+x)*L₀. As a result, only mode 706can be seeded in the PA.

FIG. 8 illustrates a temporal sequence showing the operation of theswitch 628 (curve 800), switch 610 (curve 802), the CO₂ output pulse(curve 804) and the corresponding period in which the PA seeds (arrow806). As seen there, curve 800 shows that switch 628 is initiallyswitched from a non-transmit state 808 a to a transmit state 808 b. Withswitch 628 in transmit state 808 b, curve 802 shows that switch 610 isswitched from a de-energized state 810 a to an energized state 810 b,rotating light in oscillator cavity and sending light to the PAresulting in a CO₂ output pulse (curve 804).

FIG. 9 shows another embodiment of a device (labeled 1014) for use inthe EUV light source 10′ shown in FIG. 3 and having one or morecomponents in common with the arrangement shown in FIG. 6, and in whichthe length of the optical distance “c” is adjustable. Specifically, FIG.9 shows the device 1014 may include a laser oscillator 1600 having fullyreflective mirrors 1604 a,b, electro-actuatable element 1606, amplifier1602, polarizers 1612, 1616, PRM 1620, mirror 1622 and switches 1610,1628 as described above, and arranged as shown. Also shown, four turningmirrors 1650 a-d may be provided along the optical path length betweenpolarizer 1612 and polarizer 1616, with mirrors 1650 c and 1650 dmoveable in the direction of arrow 1652 to allow an adjustment ofoptical length c. With this arrangement, the mirror 1604 a may be movedvia electro-actuable element 1606 and/or the mirrors 1650 c,d may bemoved such that L_(combined)=(N+x)*L₀, where “N” is an integer and “x”is about 0.5, e.g. a number between 0.4 and 0.6,L_(combined)=(a+2b+c+d+e) and L₀=(a+b).

While the particular embodiment(s) described and illustrated in thispatent application in the detail required to satisfy. 35 U.S.C. §112 arefully capable of attaining one or more of the above-described purposesfor, problems to be solved by, or any other reasons for or objects ofthe embodiment(s) above described, it is to be understood by thoseskilled in the art that the above-described embodiment(s) are merelyexemplary, illustrative and representative of the subject matter whichis broadly contemplated by the present application. Reference to anelement in the following Claims in the singular is not intended to meannor shall it mean in interpreting such Claim element “one and only one”unless explicitly so stated, but rather “one or more”. All structuraland functional equivalents to any of the elements of the above-describedembodiment(s) that are known or later come to be known to those ofordinary skill in the art are expressly incorporated herein by referenceand are intended to be encompassed by the present Claims. Any term usedin the Specification and/or in the Claims and expressly given a meaningin the Specification and/or Claims in the present Application shall havethat meaning, regardless of any dictionary or other commonly usedmeaning for such a term. It is not intended or necessary for a device ormethod discussed in the Specification as an embodiment to address orsolve each and every problem discussed in this Application, for it to beencompassed by the present Claims. No element, component, or method stepin the present disclosure is intended to be dedicated to the publicregardless of whether the element, component, or method step isexplicitly recited in the Claims. No claim element in the appendedClaims is to be construed under the provisions of 35 U.S.C. §112, sixthparagraph, unless the element is expressly recited using the phrase“means for” or, in the case of a method claim, the element is recited asa “step” instead of an “act”.

I/We claim:
 1. A device comprising: an oscillator having an oscillatorcavity length, L₀, and defining an oscillator path; a multi-pass opticalamplifier coupled with said oscillator to establish a combined opticalcavity including the oscillator path, the combined cavity having alength, L_(combined), where L_(combined)=(N+x)*L₀, where “N” is aninteger and “x” is a number between 0.4 and 0.6.
 2. A device as recitedin claim 1 wherein said oscillator cavity comprises an optic defining anend of the oscillator cavity and the device comprises anelectro-actuable element coupled to the optic and controllable to adjustthe oscillator cavity length.
 3. A device as recited in claim 1 whereinthe amplifier comprises a polarization discriminating optic inputtinglight traveling along a first beam path from the oscillator and havingsubstantially a first linear polarization into the amplifier andoutputting light having substantially a linear polarization orthogonalto said first polarization out of said amplifier along a second beampath.
 4. A device as recited in claim 1 wherein the oscillator comprisesan oscillator output optic, the amplifier comprises an amplifier inputoptic and the device further comprises at least one moveable optic toadjust a beam path length between said oscillator output optic and saidamplifier input optic.
 5. A device as recited in claim 1 wherein theoscillator comprises a cavity dumped oscillator.
 6. A device comprising:a laser source producing a continuous output on a beam path; anamplifier; a partially transmissive, partially reflective optic disposedon said beam path between said laser source and said amplifier; and adroplet generator positioned to deliver a droplet moving on a pathintersecting said beam path, the droplet reflecting light to establishan optical cavity with said optic.
 7. A device as recited in claim 6wherein said laser source comprises a CO₂ laser having an output in therange of 0.1 W to 100 W.
 8. A device as recited in claim 6 wherein saidpartially transmissive, partially reflective optic reflects between 75%and 99.9% of the laser source output.
 9. A device as recited in claim 6wherein said laser source has a power output, the partiallytransmissive, partially reflective optic has a reflectivity, and thepower output and reflectivity are selected wherein the light enteringthe amplifier from the oscillator does not substantially deplete gain inthe amplifier.
 10. A device as recited in claim 6 further comprising anadjustable telescope disposed along said beam path between saidoscillator and said amplifier.
 11. A device as recited in claim 6further comprising an optical isolator disposed between said lasersource and said partially transmissive, partially reflective optic toprotect said oscillator from reflected light.
 12. A device as recited inclaim 6 wherein the laser source produces a continuous output having atleast two lines and the amplifier has a gain band including said twolines.
 13. A device comprising: a target material; at least one opticestablishing a beam path with the target material; and an optical gainmedium positioned along the beam path; a chamber; a plurality of opticsdisposed in said chamber to establish a delay line along said beam path;and a saturable absorption gas disposed in said chamber to absorb atleast some photons reflected from the target material.
 14. A device asrecited in claim 13 wherein said optical gain medium comprises CO₂having a gain band including 10.6 μm and said saturable absorption gascomprises SF₆.
 15. A device as recited in claim 13 wherein said opticalgain medium comprises CO₂ having a gain band including 9.6 μm and saidsaturable absorption gas is selected from the group of gases consistingof CH₃OH, CH₃F, HCOOH, CD₃OD, CD₃F, DCOOD, and combinations thereof. 16.A device as recited in claim 13 further comprising helium gas disposedin the chamber.